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Friday, September 13, 2013

I wanted to do an updated blog post on floral water marbles. This post is going to focus more on the design in the water and less on the actual manicure. If you'd like to check out my previous floral water marble post, click here.

What you'll need: A glass to hold your water in (preferably something small like a shot glass), distilled water, nail polish and an orange stick or tooth pick to help create your design.

Step 1: Create a bulls eye with your polish.

This is done by alternating drops of polish into your glass. Your polish will spread and eventually take on a bulls eye appearance.

Step 2: Take your orange stick and gently start from the outside of your bulls eye and drag towards the center. You don't want to dip too far into the polish, just use the finest point of the orange stick to create your designs.

* The farther the polish ring is from the center, the dryer it is. It's been sitting on top of the water longer than the other rings. If you notice that the polish is not moving easily, it is most likely because it has already started to dry. Try starting your lines from a ring closer to the center.

Step 3: This time your starting point will be on the opposite end. With the same motion, gently drag towards the center until you meet your two lines together.

* When you create a line, your next line should always be directly across from the one before. (Ex: You start at the top, your next line should be from the bottom. You start from the right, your next line should start from the left, etc). This will help make your petals as symmetrical as possible.

Step 4: Create a line from the outer left and drag towards the center.

Step 5: Create a line from the outer right and drag towards the center, meeting up with all of your other lines in the center. This completes a basic floral water marble and you can choose to stop here if you'd like. I prefer a flower with more petals.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Before I purchased quality makeup brushes, I would treat my brushes like crap.. I didn't know any better. Now I wash my brushes weekly and do spot treatments whenever it's needed.

Half of any break outs could be due to dirty brushes, it's gross to even think about. Besides the gross factor, nourishing the bristles is going to keep them soft and will make them last longer.

If you'd like to see how I clean mine, keep on reading.

What you'll need: Dirty brushes, a brush cleanser, a bowl, running water and a towel.

* You can check out my brush cleanser here. You do not need a "special" brush cleanser like this one. Johnson's Baby Shampoo is cheap and gentle enough to clean your makeup brushes.

Just so we're on the same page:

Step 1: Pour a small amount of your cleanser into a bowl.

Step 2: Run your brush under luke-warm water.

* Always hold your brush upside down while cleaning it. Holding the brush upright can cause water to travel down the ferrule and loosen up the bristles.

* Never let the water go past the brush ferrule and onto the handle. Allowing water into this end of the ferrule can loosen the glue and cause the ferrule and the handle to come apart.

Step 3: Dip your dampened brush into the cleanser.

Step 4: Swirl your brush into the palm of your hand, creating a nice lather.
Rinse and repeat until the lather is white and clean.

Step 5: Gently squeeze out any extra water and lay flat to dry on a towel.
* Shape your brushes while damp so they dry nice and compact.

I like to wash my brushes before bed so they have the entire night to dry.
There are fancy racks that you can buy that'll hold your brushes upside down to dry faster, but this technique works just fine for me.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Some of you may know that I'm a big-time Pittsburgh Steelers fan.. so I figured that during half time today I would kill two birds with one stone; paint my nails black and gold and show you all my dos and don'ts when it comes to tape manicures.

Here is my manicure for today. If you'd like to know how I did them, keep on reading!

These two items are the most important when you're doing a tape manicure.

Your polish may look dry, it may feel dry.. but tape and wet polish are not friends. It's better to take the guessing game out of it and just use a fast-drying top coat.

Step 1: Paint your nails black and apply your fast-drying top coat.

Polish used : OPI- Black Onyx and Essie- Good To Go.

Step 2: After you've waited for your nails to dry (about 5-10 minutes), take 2 pieces of tape and apply them to the back of your hand. Remove the pieces and stick them on again. Do this about 2-3 times. This removes any extra stickiness and helps assure that the tape won't be pulling the polish up.

Step 3: Apply the tape onto your nails like so. Gently push down the edges of the tape to make sure that you remove any bubbles to give the tape the best seal.

Step 4: Apply your gold polish. Make sure you apply evenly.

Polish used : OPI- Glitzerland.

Step 5: This step is important. Remove the pieces of tape individually and immediately after you apply your gold polish. Do not wait for your gold polish to dry and then pull your tape up, you won't get as clean of a line.

Step 6: Once the tape is removed, do any additional clean up and

add one last coat of fast-drying top coat.

I hope this post answered any questions you may have had about tape manicures!